Thursday News Threads

Seminal rock group the Pixies have announced their full schedule for their Doolittle tour. The band will be performing their classic album in its entirety with a few surprises along the way. The Seattle dates are November 11 and 12 at the Paramount Theater; be sure to check out our presale, which starts today at 10AM and runs to Friday at 10PM. Use the password “KEXP”.

Master MC and accomplished actor Mos Def has assembled a fall tour behind his latest effort, The Ecstatic. A Seattle date is scheduled for August 28 with no word on the venue quite yet.

You know you love yourself if you cover your own album. Twice. Indie-pop sibling duo The Fiery Furnaces plan to re-record their albumI’m Going Away, with siblings Matt and Eleanor Friedberger each releasing their own versions of the album.

Unlike most bands, Weezer seem to get less mature with age, as evidenced by two new songs they debuted at a recent show in South Korea called “I’m Your Daddy” and “The Girl Got Hot.” Apparently they sound just like the titles. If you must, check ‘em out at Stereogum.

Memphis maniac rocker Jay Reatard is hitting the road this August for a batch of free all-ages in-store performances. Can you say awesome? He’ll be in Seattle for two shows, August 26 at East Street Records and August 27 at Sonic Boom Records playing songs from his new album, Watch Me Fall, out that same month. You can also look forward to a Jay Reatard documentary. Check out the trailer here.

Ex-Be Your Own Pet frontwoman Jemina Pearl has set tour dates and a release date for her upcoming solo album, Break It Up, on Ecstatic Peace. She’ll be at Chop Suey on October 19.

Don’t worry: The Mountain Goats won’t be touring the Christian rock circuit any time soon (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). But you might get that impression when first reading about the new album, The Life Of The World To Come (due on 4AD on October 6), which features a dozen songs named after Bible passages, like “Genesis 3:23.” “It’s not a screed,” claims songwriter John Darnielle, who assures us he hasn’t “had some sort of religious awakening.” He says rather vaguely that “It’s twelve songs the Bible taught me, kind of.”

If you’ve never watched the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, you’re missing out. The show has already featured tons of rad performances from bands like Tilly And The Wall, The Ting Tings, MGMT, and Chromeo, and now Super Furry Animals are getting in on the action. The Welsh band are hard at work writing a song for the show but there’s no word yet if they’ll appear in person.

Someone had to say it, but who thought it would be David Byrne? They typically polite veteran of rock not so subtly pointed out on his blog that U2‘s spending “$40 million to build the stage” and their estimated “200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe” for their upcoming world tour is a bit “overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all.” Byrne, who admits to being a little bit peeved for getting bumped from Letterman during the week-long U2 residency, is at least thankful that Live Nation, who’s promoting both his and U2’s tours is allowing him to play clubs who might not otherwise be able to afford it.

Pearl Jam is promoting their upcoming album Backspacer with a scavenger hunt. After collecting nine images, created by Tom Tomorrow, across the interweb, fans will be treated to a download of some sort. You can start your collection at Spinner.